This amazing beer combines the best of all worlds. Five specialty malts and three superior hop varieties have been carefully chosen from the Pacific Northwest, the U.K. and Europe. The malted barleys and hops create a rich, traditional porter. The addition of all natural pure blackberry provides an exciting complexity to this easy sipping wonder. Lean back, relax, and savour the flavour!

Beer: Reviews & Ratings

Tart, watery, not so enjoyable porter. Hey, just notvery drinkable. Too blackberry in aroma, and therefore I suspect artifical. Below average porter. May get through with a large multi-course meal.Bomber at Rudy's in Buffalo on trade with Tim Freely provided by Mustang3. (271 characters)

Bottle courtesy of CBA: Poured a dark black color porter with a nice foamy head with some good retention. Aroma of sweet berry is somewhat dominating with some light roasted malt notes also noticeable. Taste is a nice balance between semi-sweet berries and some light dry roasted malt notes. Body is a bit light with some better then average carbonation. I have to admit to being pleasantly surprised by that one since I usually dont like fruit and porter to be mixed together. (479 characters)

650ml bottle. I've had this numerous times before, and it always makes for a general crowd pleaser.

This beer pours a clear, deep, dark chestnut brown hue, with small red cola edges when presented to the light, and two fingers of tightly foamy, and somewhat creamy beige head, which leaves a low wall of grassy knoll lace around the glass as it slowly recedes.

It smells of sweet, fruity, mildly acidic blackberries, biscuity caramel malt, bittersweet chocolate, a soft oily nuttiness, and earthy, leafy noble hops. The taste is more sweet 'n sassy blackberry fruitiness, aided and abetted by some of its blueberry cousins, a decently middling bready caramel malt, edgy baker's chocolate, a touch of bitter dry coffee, and a plain enough hoppiness, that one could rightly mistake this for dessert quality compote, if duly treated.

The carbonation is fairly laid back, even inert at times, the body a decent medium-heavy weight, and rather smooth, what with all that heady fruitiness. It finishes fairly sweet, the blackberries and cocoa-heavy caramel malt still providing a definite dessert potential, and the elevated alcohol hardly apparent.

As a fan of blackberries, I am rather impressed by their involvement in this particular brew - they're pungent, but not really overpowering, and well aided by the cocoa/nuttiness esters, which render this a very enjoyable quaff all on its very own. Or maybe have it with chocolate cake - whatever, it's your beer. (1,461 characters)

The beer's inky, opaque appearance came as no surprise - it says it right there in the name (*Black*berry). Unlike the fruit, however, there's not a dash of colour no matter how it's observed. A shovel appears to be needed to get through to the beer; that huge mound of brownish foam leaves behind a labyrinth of lacing as it retreats further down the glass.

Again, the title plays spoiler; it smells of, you guessed it, blackberries. But not the rubbery, steroid-injected ones from San Fernando Valley (which have barely any taste anyhow), more like the tiny luscious ones I pick in my own backyard. That berry tartness is a wonderful companion to the sweet caramel sauce it smells as though it's been dipped in.

This tastes of a berry reduction - not only of blackberry, but some tart blueberry as well - that's worthy of being ladled, along with some caramel, over a rich chocolate cake. How perfect then that its other flavours should specifically include both caramel and chocolate cake!? There's even a dash of vanilla in there too. Can you say 'great dessert beer'?

The harsh roast typical of some porters is absent; this makes the beer more agreeable to casual drinkers and should teach them not to be afraid of dark beers. Moreover, the berry flavour (without which, the beer would be a little light and lame) can be fully appreciated, unhindered by any coffee-like astringency or acrid burnt malts.

I suspect that in a lager this flavour would be flat and underwhelming, but in a porter it matches well with those decadent dessert-y flavours. The water's minerals also pair well with the naturally occurring tartness in the blackberry flavour. I think the brewer is probably owed as much credit for this one as the flavour chemist responsible for the syrup.

Using artificial flavours is a lot like bleaching your teeth: the result is aesthetic, but a lot less impressive if it's obvious that it's not genuine. Such concentrated and dynamic fruit flavour, like the perfect set of pearly whites, rarely exists by nature alone. But it's easy to make bad beer when using fake fruit syrups - making a good one is much harder to do. If you do manage to however - which Cannery has - the results can be most appealing. (2,230 characters)

Bottle from the LCBO, 650ml into a tulip. Best before February 1, 2013.

Almost wholly black, mocha head with some creamy retention and good lace. Nose of blackberry, currants, blueberries, dark chocolate and light roast. Taste had almost the same with regards to dark berries, and roast is a touch more prominent. Sweet and fruity. Moderate bitterness lingers, medium body and carbonation is a higher medium. Good flavour, better than I recall when I've previously had this. (475 characters)

Clear, very dark brown with ruby (nearly purple) highlights. A short cap of fine, tan foam emerged from the pour and left behind generous lacing as it fell. Strong berry aroma, very sweet smelling, with notes of malt and dark grains in the background. Definitely on the thin side, both malt and body. Berry dominates the flavour, but there's a dry harshness that appears part way through that's not very pleasant. I wasn't very impressed, but my wife didn't mind it. Thanks wintermute! (485 characters)

Pours a clear brown, red edges, thick tan head, nice lacing, decent retention, looks like a porter. Smell is weird, blackberry jam, some chocolate, bit of anise and toffee, blackberry character does not really smell artificial which is good. Taste is malty, chocolate, lots of blackberry sweetness through the middle, toffee, more berries, some roast in the finish. Strong berry presence but I think it works in the beer. Mouthfeel is medium bodied with medium carbonation. I kind of liked this. (495 characters)

appearance: poured into a pint glass...body is a medium-dark mahogany with deep cherry highlights...head is active and foamy, retention is decent and a nice lace is left behind...all things considered, about what you would expect

smell: wow. I will admit that I purchased this beer mostly because I had been snacking on wonderful berries all week in the northwest. The fresh blackberry aromas in this brew are potent, not artificial at all. behind is a roasty malt aroma with hints of cocoa and cappuccino

taste: This is a great fruit-porter. Often times fruit themed beers dont pan out so I give this beer a ton of credit. A wonderful sweet blackberry flavour dances on the palate with great, albeit controlled, porter flavours beneath...roasted malt, sweet cocoa powder, roasted coffee. alcohol is completely concealed leaving a phenomenally drinking porter

I remember being unimpressed with this beer when it first came out but I now quite like this brew. Dark brown with ruby highlights this beer gives off a great fruity coffee nose. The taste is full yet not in your face. The berry notes are nicely placed in the background and the burnt malt is not too pronounced. Well balanced and very drinkable this is their best beer. (370 characters)

T - Holy blackberries! The after-taste is like of bushel of berries in your mouth. The porter comes through nicely as well with chocolate malts and dark cocoa coming through on a bitter finish. The flavour combination is very reminiscent of berry chewing tobacco, with the porter bringing out a bit of a leafy tobacco flavour.

M - Very light and bubbly and goes down extremely smooth. Was expecting something a little more syropy, but this one was perfectly carbonated making for a wonderful experience on the palette.

D - Overall this offering is absolutely delicious and I would totally get another bomber, or six. Not really a session beer, but one bomber is easily consumed and would be the perfect dessert beer. The higher ABV goes unnoticed, and the flavours are one-of-a-kind. Highly recommended to anyone seeking a new fruity experience. (1,119 characters)

Pours an opaque brown with thin off-white head. Spotting lacing around the glass. Smells strongly of the blackberry, without much else. Flavour has lots of blackberry sweetness, with perhaps some tart flavour. It has some of the porter characteristics I expect, but a little bit overwhelmed by the blackberry. I hope more of Cannery's beers find their way to the LCBO because I enjoyed the Maple Stout more when I had it last year. (431 characters)

This 650ml sneaked into the US (w/o passport), a souvenir of our August trip to Victoria. Purchased at BC Liquors, it's been hiding in a dark corner of the cellar, waiting for this moment to shine...poured to a pint.

A: Deep and rich brown, held to the light above our kitchen table shows a nice clarity with modest fast-rising carbonation. Do my eyes deceive me, or is there really a slight purple-ish/ruby tint to this one? A frothy tan caps builds to about a finger-high, ebbing away to a denser, creamier fraction of that.

S: 'Natural Blackberry Flavour' (or 'Flaveur de mûres Naturelle') is a listed ingredient. Obviously! Very nice berry aroma - juicy, earthy, lightly sweet. It's like a dollop of preserves dropped in a porter, with just a little cocoa powder and cereal sweetness. This may not be to everyone's liking, but I love blackberries and I love the way this smells as it boldly wafts from the glass.

T: Hard to live up to the aroma's promise, but this does pretty well...the blackberries are definitely a big part of this flavor, but becoming more of a sidenote as the 'porter' features develop. What starts sweeter and fruity evolves to a dustier bitterness of semisweet bakers chocolate and coffee grounds. Balance of fruity and bitter plays pretty well, and with each sip the process begins again, thus never too tiresome.

M: A fairly thin porter, slick down the throat. Carbonation is gentle, but there is a bittering dry finish (chalky?) that coats the back of the tongue and lingers.

D: This is a fun and interesting porter. Maybe not a 'must have' (it was more novelty than anything), but I'd drink it again. 6.5% ABV is reasonable for finishing the bottle at a sitting. (1,700 characters)

My friend Jill picked this up for me at some point. Gotta love a friend who sees an interesting beer and just grabs it for you. Thanks Jill!

From a bomber into a snifter.

APPEARANCE: A very transparent brown pour yields a 1+ finger, medium-thinner looking, light tan head with good retention. Black body with next to zero carbonation evident. Head slowly fades to a full wisp and clings to the top of the glass. A good wisp and ring remain the whole way leaving some decent lacing.

SMELL: Piles of blackberries. Heaps actually. Lighter notes of dark chocolate and roasted, smoky malt, but this is more about the blackberries. One dimensional, but still bold and interesting enough.

TASTE: Dark malts and blackberries. That’s basically it. Some light caramel and sweet malt at the finish, but very little bitterness as balance here. Pretty one dimensional. A touch of roasted and smoky malt with lots of bold blackberries linger on the palate. Flavorful, but very one dimensional.

PALATE: Medium body and medium carbonation. Light on the palate but creamy enough as well, goes down smooth and finishes dry on the palate. Light, but decently creamy.

OVERALL: An enjoyable beer, especially on a hot summer’s evening, but definitely one dimensional. I wished they’d been able to mesh some other qualities from the base beer into the flavor profile as well. Some will love this the way it is, but I enjoy a little more complexity of flavor. That said, I quite enjoyed this one and would gladly have another. Thanks again for thinking of me Jill! (1,557 characters)

Bomber courtesy of BigBry, and split with my lovely wife. Very dark pour with a good-lasting tan coloured head. When held up to the light, the body has a dark ruby, almost purple, tinge. Strong, fresh blackberry aroma mixed in with lightly roasted grains and cocoa. Enticing and intriguing. Excellent balance in the taste between the fruit and the porter elements. I've found that in many of these hybrids the fruit is given too much of the spotlight, but here the robust porter flavours are complimented perfectly, with the fruit coming more to the fore in the finish. Milky coffee, bittersweet chocolate and dry malts. The blackberry lurks at the edges, punching this one up before becoming more apparent in the dry finish. The wife observed more sweetness than I did, and said that it was almost dessert like. Medium body and carbonation. I could definitely do this one again. (879 characters)

A very dark ruby colour with a thin off white head. Smells of sweet-sour blackberry with a hop presence kicking around. Tastes like blackberry and coffee right away that is rounded out with a bitter slightly sour hop presence. Light in terms of mouthfeel, was maybe a bit to fizzy for me. I would split a bomber with a buddy or two, I found the whole bomber to be a bit of a commitment on my own. This is not for me I don't think however, it really is a well made porter. This is the first offering I have tried from Cannery and I am interested in tasting some of there other stuff (581 characters)

My second foray into what Cannery Brewing has to offer. What can I say, I'm a sucker for both porters and fruit beers, and I figured that B.C. was capable of melding the two. In this case they certainly have.

Poured from a 650 ml brown bottle, this fruit porter is capped by a small but thick creamy beige head. A thin cap remains most of the way with some aggresive lacing. The body is deep dark, and when held up to direct sunlight in my pint mug I get deep cherry oak highlights among the facets. Blackberries don't normally agree with me, but this is a great nose on this porter. The unmistakable sweetness of the blackberries combined with roasted and chocolate malt, and some hints of coffee. It has a jam sweetness to it, but not overwhelmingly sweet (cloying as they say). Roasted malt up front, some chocolate, and the sweet blackberries start to kick in in the middle. A dry baker's chocolate carries the sweet berries to the finish, where the blackberries fade away, leaving a sweet finish that melds into a dry chocolate/coffee aftertaste. Hell, I just bumped my 4 taste rating to a 4.5 based on that balance. The mouthfeel is a bit thin to me for a porter, but the flavour and aroma duly make up for that.

It's a fruit porter people, not a standard porter, and for what it is I like it a great deal. I can envision a trip down to Penticton to stock up on more of this. It's not for those with a sweet tooth, but them exempted, it's definitely worth checking out. It's not a session beer either, but worth stocking up on for special occassions (wink wink). I am really enjoying this. (1,603 characters)

I have tried this one previously on tap at Beerfest 2005 - it won the People's Choice Award (and again in 2006), and have been wanting to get more ever since. 650 ml bottle from this 'Small Brewery, Big Flavour.' Pours a deep dark reddish brown, ruby red and purplish highlights. Thick creamy head, good stability and nice thick sheets of lacy bubbles. Just looking at it makes your mouth water, combine that with the aroma of ripe blackberries, a winner for sure. Lots of sweet juicy smells, but not overly sugary or artificial smelling. A nice full bodied porter flavor with lots of dark roasted malts, raisin, and of course blackberry taste. Just a touch of smokiness sneaks through as the beer starts to warm up a bit. Nice bitter balance at the end. The blackberry is definitely in there but still subtle enough that it doesn't overpower the rest of the flavor or aromas. Thick and creamy mouth feel with just enough carbonation to keep it crisp and dry. I am glad this 'easy sipping wonder' is available, and I will be looking for it again. A non-traditional combination, not really just a fruit beer, a solid beer. This big bottle has become a staple to take to friends' places for dinner or a BBQ instead of wine. (1,221 characters)

Thanks to kjyost for this one. Split with my wife over our supper, pork with plums, blackberries(!) and cinnamon.

Poured from a 650ml. bottle.

Appearance: Pours a dark body which when held to the light is slightly reddish or almost the color of not quite ripe blackberries unless that's the power of suggestion. Lots of head, easily 3 fingers that sits awhile and drapes the side of the glass.

Smell: Blackberries and malt. Sweet smelling a little and kind of reminds me also of black currants. I can honestly say i can't find anything wrong with this wonderful aroma.

Taste: Blackberries are omnipresent but never overbearing. Very malt forward with some spices and maybe a whisper of bitterness. The only knock is i don't find it tastes much like a porter. Maybe more like a light stout. Regardless, it's still a tasty beer.

Mouthfeel: Very smooth and creamy. Maybe a tad unbalanced as i feel the malt takes too much space. Not very robust for the style and ABV but i still like the feel of it.

Drinkability: A good, drinkable brew. I'd have it again but to split only as it might be a bit much for me taste-wise.

Overall: This beer surprised me as my expectations were average. Better than expected and though it could be a bit more balanced in regards to the malt, i still highly recommend this brew. Best beer i've had in awhile. (1,341 characters)

A - basically pitch black, short head dissipated to a thin covering with a consistent lace ringS - strong sweet blackberry dominates, roasty and light chocolate, hint of leafinessT - sweet blackberry meshes with the bitterness of the roasty and chocolate malt, light leafy hop note comes through the finishM - medium body smooth to start, with carbonation lingering, finishing with some acidity and bitternessO - they have not spared the feature ingredient here which is delicious and compliments the maltiness well, this could easily be sessionable (553 characters)

Front side is a great 3-way amalgam of hops roast and berry frutiness..mid palate more complex malting is detected with caramel-toasty-roasty body challenging hop astringency...bittering/malting comes through late leading to a increasingly london porter-like finish.

A very well constructed fruit ale ...complex malting and hopping retains a rich porter character with a complimentary natural blackberry flourish. Very drinkable and satisfying...top flight micro beer. (735 characters)

T - Drier than expected, with lots of berry flavour and again bubblegum. Nice balancing hop and roasted bitterness. Molasses and malt flavour in the back is also very nice. Very dark, fruity tasting beer but well balanced at the same time.

M - Chewy, thick mouthfeel.

D - I like this a lot. Good mix of dark beeriness and the berries which brighten it up. Strong point of this definitely the balance. (518 characters)